[jbduler]

For me it makes total sense to tax Google, Facebook and all others. Why not? What do you to lose? Parking your IP in some remote country, be it Ireland or Turks and Caicos, is fine until you realize that the IP protection is not as bullet proof as you thought. And please don't come to California to sue to protect your IP. I still can't believe that none of those companies are paying Federal nor state taxes. For now. Well, they do pay some insanely low taxes.

[jacquesm]

This has absolutely nothing to do with IP but everything to do with the delivery of services which are free, supplemented by advertising income accounted for abroad where it can not be taxed by the country where the service was delivered.

Looked at in a different way: if Google was a paid for service you could levy sales tax on that service.

[balfirevic]

But Google earns it's money from selling ads. If they are selling those ads to business in EU, the mechanics (and taxation) seem to be the same as (for example) a US graphic design company selling logo design services to businesses in EU.

What exactly is new here? Is it just the size (and wealth) of Google and similar companies that has encouraged the governments to try to take a larger slice of pie?

[kazagistar]

Companies are always going to find ways to avoid taxes and privatize more profits to fewer and fewer individuals. It's the responsibility of the government to find those loopholes and get them to pay a fair share to maintain the society they exploit for that profit.

[balfirevic]

Thanks, but that is barely related to the specifics of my comment and seems ideologically charged to boot.

[jbduler]

Yes, taxes are related to IP of course. Parking your IP in a country where you have a super low tax rate guarantees paying no or very little taxes using transfer pricing shenanigans back to your home office.